Inna
Albert, I've been reading your posts for years and have no reason not to believe your hearing and objectivity.
So, those cords are not just cords, they are also sort of power conditioners.Hope to try them one day. Currently using Custom Power Cord Company Top Gun cords, they are very good; I don't have very powerful amps for which they are not quite recommended.
Well, speed stability and dynamics are paramount. Why don't we see more direct drive tables? Too difficult to make them right?
You don't use linear tracking arms with your Technics. Why not? It doesn't work or just not a very good match?
Inna, That’s a lot of ground to cover and difficult to answer. Yes, Purist Limited and 25th Anniversary have a filter network that scrapes off noise, RF and EMI. In some systems this effect can be huge.
I have not tried Custom Power Cord Company Top Gun so it’s not appropriate for me to comment. I have listened to dozens of cables of all types and certainly there are some that stand out. All of this is dependant on the system they are put in.
As for why not more direct drive tables, actually there seem to be a swing back that way but we will have to see. VPI is producing one, Pass Labs frequently shows at audio venues with a Technics and PBN (Peter) is offering restored direct drive tables. They are not so rare as one might think.
As for linear track arms, I’ve owned a good many of them, beginning back in the 1970s with the Rabco and later the ET-2 built by Bruce Thigpen. In the time when CDs were supposed to take over analog I had the Versa Dynamics turntable with it’s linear tracking arm and later I owned several Basis Debut Gold tables and a couple of them had linear trackers including the Air Tangent from Europe.
After that I owned the Walker Proscenium with original arm and later the Black Diamond. Both were linear tracking.
Linear tracking does have lower tracking error but presents other problems at the same time. The worst of these in my mind is bearing coupling. An air bearing is not as stiff as a top notch captured bearing design such as SME, Tri Planar and other similar designs.
In short, the capture bearing designs are typically better bass performance and less likely to be “driven” by the cartridge. This is a general answer and does not cover all arms and certainly not every interaction with various cartridges.
As with cable, all these designs have their own sound and it would take a short novel to describe every variation. I will say that when you are in the presence of each of these as I was, the sense is that you have reached the limit of what is possible.
With time and perspective that changes and you realize there are multiple paths and if you can figure out exactly what you like and why, then choosing the correct gear gets easier.
